Working with occupational health can sometimes be a frustrating experience for benefits and HR professionals. Concerns around responsiveness, poor integration with other benefits and fallout from cases going wrong can have a big impact on business performance. Incorrect billing and invoicing can be big headaches too.
Sometimes occupational health providers get things wrong, we are all human after all, although very often there are simple tips and tricks that can really help avoid common problems with occupational health providers.
Starting with responsiveness, for example: queries taking a long time to be answered, appointments taking a long time to arrange or occupational health reports taking a long time to arrive. This really is a management issue, because service standards can easily be agreed with a provider at the start of any programmes. Occasionally providers may over-promise, but it is easy to seek confirmation that what is being offered is deliverable.
As technology becomes increasingly embedded in occupational health practices, it is more common that appointments should not take more than a few days to arrange, reports should be available within a few days of an assessment and it is really not unreasonable to expect service queries to be responded to quickly.
Employers can seek confirmation from a clinical contact, operations manager, practice manager or senior member of the providers’ team; they do not need to just rely on what an account manager or sales executive tells them will work.
Turning to integration, it is rare that occupational health is fully integrated into a benefits platform. There are benefits providers that link with occupational health, although it is often a sub-contracted arrangement. Employers may need to ask staff to download separate apps to access services, for example.
Software development costs have plummeted in recent years, and experience and capability levels among many occupational health providers have increased in the same period. That means it is becoming easier to integrate occupational health services, especially services like new entrant (pre-employment) medical screening and occupational health assessments (sometimes also called management referrals) into existing business processes.
Another tip if employers are evaluating occupational health provision, is to ask the provider about their experience with application programming interface (API) development; it can unlock significant value for their business.
When an occupational health report has not helped progress the management of a problem, or worse, has complicated things further, it is often down to the communication involved; the root of which is the referral form that all providers need completing.
A clinician can only answer questions posed on a referral form, so if the question was not positioned appropriately, they will not be able to provide an appropriate answer. All providers will be happy to provide clarification about their reports too, so if something does not make sense, do not stew on it, contact the provider and speak to them as soon as possible.
Sometimes the language used in reports causes confusion. ‘The employee perceives they are being treated unfairly’ is not saying they are being treated unfairly, just that is what they perceive.
If an employee has concerns about occupational health, the employer should speak to the provider at the earliest opportunity.
Billing and invoicing can be a huge headache with occupational health, often because there are many different service profiles being delivered for the same client. A relatively recent case in a tax tribunal has established that most occupational health services are exempt from value-added tax (VAT). If VAT is still being charged, the employer should speak to their provider or a tax specialist.
Many occupational health services are now exempt from VAT, so employers may be able to save 20% on their budget by checking they are being invoiced correctly.
Magnus Kauders is managing director at Occupational Health Assessment
